In early November, Bonafide Film House a Bozeman Video Production Company was contacted by the head of marketing for the Belgrade location of Service Partners Supply. They were interested in having a Bozeman video production company produce them a 3-5 minute long video showcasing the complete construction of one of their spray foam insulation trucks. This location specializes in the manufacturing of highly specialized commercial spray foam insulation trucks. Operating now for close to ten years and producing at least one truck a week, their products are some of the best in the country and in extremely high demand. Located near the Yellowstone International Airport in Belgrade Montana with a gorgeous view of the Bridger Mountains, the Bonafide Film House crew knew they were in for a fun project.

AS A SMALL BUSINESS VIDEO PRODUCTION COMPANY WE KNEW THAT WE NEEDED A LITTLE MORE INFORMATION

During our initial consultation with them, Justin Kietzman and Anthony Cohen spoke with the owner and head of marketing for a couple of hours, getting a very solid handle on what the companies vision was for their video. It was to be playing on a very large television mounted to the side of one of their demo trailers at the Palm Springs SPFA (Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance) yearly trade show. They had a laundry list of what they knew what they wanted included in the trade show video, but as a small business video production company, we knew that we needed a little more information; Information that can be a bit harder to put into words if you are not in the creative video production industry. After a bit more discussion, watching some examples on the iPad and discussing some previous work we had done for some other Bozeman small businesses, we knew exactly what kind of trade show video we would create for them. Shooting was planned to begin the following Monday.

The next step for Bonafide Film House was simple: Pre Visualization.

If there is one constant in this universe, it is that planning is everything. A lot of people have the misconception that in order to do business video production you just show up with a camera and record everything you see, but unfortunately this is not the case. Even the most natural feeling videos you see are planned ahead of time. Nothing ever happens how you want it to, this is true in every day life and it’s extra true in video production. The only way to combat the entropy of the universe in film and video production is simple: Pre Visualization. Justin Kietzman and Anthony Cohen sat down with notebooks and inspiration material; the Pre-Vis began. Discussing exactly what they wanted to shoot, the main shots were written down. Once the list of all of the important shots were collected, a general storyboard was developed. We started to develop a general order for how we wanted the video to flow. We made sure that our storyboard included all of the main processes involved in making a truck and also showed off all of the very very cool stuff involved in building a custom rig. At this point, we had a pretty good idea for the direction of this Montana corporate video. Experience as a Bozeman video production company told us that just having a storyboard wasn’t enough to create a corporate video of this size.

A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE THE MISCONCEPTION THAT IN ORDER TO DO BUSINESS VIDEO PRODUCTION YOU JUST SHOW UP WITH A CAMERA AND RECORD EVERYTHING YOU SEE, BUT UNFORTUNATELY THIS IS NOT THE CASE

Next we created a script. We knew what story Service Partners Supply was trying to tell with this business video, so we created a multi page set of questions we would use, to have the head manager answer during a sit down style interview. In essence we created an anti-script. We formed the questions so his answers would seem like statements, making the video flow very naturally and make the viewer easily understand the message of this corporate business video. Even the most competent business owner, that knows everything about his field, can have a hard time sitting down in front of a camera and quoting lines, so making your making your script in the form of questions can save everyone a lot of time and create a much more competent business video. Once we had all of this prepared, we sent the questions to the business owner so he could become more comfortable with the questions and prepare his answers. At this point we were ready to begin filming on Monday.

Early Monday morning rolled around and the Bonafide Film House crew was ready to rock and roll. Upon arrival the first thing we did was check the two GoPro time-lapse cameras we had set up early the night before to capture the removal and installation of the framing and interior insulation. They were still running on track for their five day long time-lapse of the build of the entire truck. At this point, we pulled the production van up to the warehouse and began to unload all of our equipment.

Lighting is the most important aspect of filmmaking, commercial or not. So one of the first things Justin Kietzman does when he shows up on a new location is he gets out his Sekonic Lightmeter in order to figure out the lighting conditions and decide what lights the crew will decide to use for each individual room. Interviews typically call for soft boxes on multi-bulb interview lights, very close to the subject. Slow motion shots calls for extremely bright single point spot lights on a single static subject, in order to provide enough light for the extremely high shutter speed. All of this comes into play on a professional commercial film set and it arguable the most important aspect of any filmmaking project.

Justin decided for this particular project we would need our 2000 watt interview light set which we commonly used for Bozeman Video Production projects and Commercial video production jobs and our ten 200 watt LED can lights. All of these lights were originally various color temperatures, so Justin Kietzman gelled them all to 4000 Kelvin, the same temperature as the overhead lights inside of the building. Making sure none of the lit subjects looked blue or yellow, a very common in lower budget video production products.

Over the next couple of days, filming moved forward at a steady pace. Justin Kietzman and Anthony Cohen would show up at set times for a few hours each day, covering major points of the build and ensuring that the three time lapse cameras were running and not missing a moment. This arrangement saved the client quite a bit of money in the end, everything was still covered fulling but with many less hours of filming involved.

The final day of this Bozeman Video Production project was the longest. Justin Kietzman and Anthony Cohen showed up at 6am as the shop opened and stayed until 8pm that evening. Filming the pre planned interview with the manager of Service Partners Supply as well as filming the walk and talk portions with him as well. For these shots we used a very simple dolly, that was perfectly capable for a smooth concrete floor like in the warehouse of this Montana Video Production shoot. This same day all of the slow motion was also filmed, these were highly staged shots with almost all of the lights being used, ensuring we had enough exposure, keeping the image free of noise. These sorts of shots are where the production value really shows up, making any commercial video production look like a extremely high budget commercial production.

After 8 days, the shooting was finished. The footage was taken back to Bonafide Film House headquarter and edited into the final product and delivered less than two weeks later, you can view it here:

If you are interested in having Justin Kietzman and Anthony Cohen at Bonafide Film House a Bozeman Video Production company create you a cinematic professional commercial video for your Montana business, please get in touch with us.